Incredible Creatures up North : Big Feet Also Found in Canada

San Francisco Chronicle

Gerald W. Crew, a mild-mannered construction man from Humboldt county's Land of the Bigfeet, arrived here last week lugging a plaster cast of the 16-inch footprints under his arm. He also brought clippings and letters from Canada where, it seems, similar-size 22 footprints have been noted several times by otherwise reliable citizens. In Canada, he siad, the giant footprints are attributed to the Sasquatches--a legendary tribe of giant, hairy, wild Indians. "We've heard that old Indian story in Humboldt county too, but in Humboldt we call 'em the Bigfoots," he said.

'CAN'T BE HOAX'

It was Crew, described by his friends as "sober and reliable," who first found the tracks two months ago near a Weitchpec logging road. "I don't know what it is," he said yesterday, "but I've tracked a lot of these tracks and we've checked out every possibility anyone could think of. It can't be a hoax." Publisher John Green of the Advance, in Agassiz, B.C. sent Crew the story of "our Sasquatches", and cautioned him: "Don't take it too seriously that everyone thinks you are a liar or crazy. They can't help it, and you will get used to it."

CREATURE SEEN

The Canadian story, as sworn to by William Roe of Cloverdale, B.C. involves Roe's "incredible experience with a wild creature" near the little town of Tete Jaune Caehe, B.C., 18 months ago. "I saw what I thought was a grizzly bear, but when it stepped into the open I saw it was not a bear." the story related. "My first impression was that of a huge man, 6 feet tall and three feet wide, somewhere near 300 pounds, covered from head to foot with brown, silver-tipped hair. "As it came closer, I saw by its breasts it was a female...It came close to the edge of the brush I was hiding in, within 20 feet of me, where it squatted down and began to eat leaves from the bushes... "Finally the wild thing must have caught my scent, for it looked directly at me through an opening in the brush...I leveled my rifle as it walked away but I felt now that it was a human being and I knew that I would never forgive myself if I shot it..."

WOMAN FRIGHTENED

Roe's story explained that he had heard about the Sasquatch Indians, "which many claim are still alive to this day," and he had concluded he had seen one of that legendary tribe. Publisher Green also sent an earlier report that Mrs. George Chapman of Ruby Creek, B.C. had sighted one of the creatures near her home in October 1941. She ran to a railway section gang, screaming for help, the report said, and several of the men later saw huge footprints near her house. The plaster cast Crew carried displayed the shape of a vast bare foot, with no indication of claws--just humanlike toes.